Exercise and Fitness

cardio and leg strength. The biggest drawback is that it is boring as heck, but if you don't mind it, then it is a great exercise. I did the stair machine for a year to prepare to hike up Mt Shasta in northern CA a few years ago.

I'm going to hike up Mt St Helens at the end of the month if the weather is OK. For that I've been doing hill sprints, since the gym with the stair machine is no longer conveniently located. There's a long uphill drive out of our apartment complex - I "sprint" up it (I've never been very speedy), then jog slowly down, then repeat until I've done the uphill 10 times. I think that the uphill sprints give me the best bang for the buck - it takes less than half an hour, it alternates high intensity with low intensity, and I don't have to do miles and miles of jogging which would probably hurt my knees (I'm 56).